Professor Vadim Rogovin presents an analysis of the causes, impact and consequences of Stalin's purges. Rogovin demonstrates that the principle function and aim of the terror was the physical annihilation of the socialist opposition to Stalin's bureaucratic regime.

This volume continues the first major study by a Russian Marxist historian of the two most fateful years in the history of the Soviet Union. Professor Vadim Rogovin demonstrates that the principle function and aim of the terror was the physical annihilation of the socialist opposition to Stalin's bureaucratic regime.